Back into the Wilderness
by whimsicalwombat
Summary: When Reddington brings the team a Blacklister who claims to have a time machine, Samar finds that just a little more far fetched than usual... Until she ends up stuck in the dinosaur age, with nothing but a lonely Apatosaurus who thinks he's a puppy, for company. Was an attempt at crack, that as per usual for me, turned into fluffy crack with a touch of angst in the middle.
1. Chapter 1

Dinosaurs.

That was what Samar was sprinting away from currently. Not bad guys with guns or bombs, but _dinosaurs_.

It was at that point that for once, Samar was regretting her usual cynicism. Reddington had brought them so many Blacklisters in the past, many of which had both the genius intellect and _just_ the right level of being unhinged to achieve things no law enforcement agency ever thought possible before. One would think that by now, if Reddington announced that he knew a guy capable of building a functioning time machine and threatening to use it to go back in time, change the course of history and ultimately, destroy humanity forever... Someone might actually take him seriously.

But no, Samar had thought that particular idea was _just_ a little more farfetched than usual.

And now she was being chased by dinosaurs. Specifically, the kind with blade like teeth who really, _really_ looked like they thought she would make a pretty delicious meal, and had started chasing her from the moment she landed in their time period, practically right on top of them.

All because when the taskforce reluctantly agreed to track down the evil genius in question, and Samar had reached forwards to pick up the flashing, handheld device to place it carefully in an evidence bag, she had apparently touched the damn thing at just the wrong moment and found herself transported into her own personal, real live rendition of a Jurassic Park movie, but without other actual humans... Or any semblance of civilisation at all, really.

She was in the Jurassic era, or the Triassic era, or maybe even the Cretaceous era. Samar wasn't entirely sure. Dinosaurs weren't exactly her area of expertise.

They were Aram's, actually -one of the many random sets of factoids that fascinated him.

Samar only hoped to all things holy or otherwise that he was now madly working on the time machine back in the present, trying to figure out how the hell to bring her home, given that upon touching the device she hadn't exactly grabbed it and brought it back in time with her.

In the meantime, as she ducked past a few more trees and found a small clearing in the wilderness, Samar just had to survive this insanity long enough to get there.

She took a breath as she crouched at the edge of the clearing with her back towards some kind of rocky wall that probably formed a cliff above her head. The vicious looking beasts with the horrifyingly sharp teeth had stopped chasing her finally, and wandered back to wherever they had come from... Now, she was faced with the herd of long-necked creatures that seemed to be peacefully foraging in the lower lying bushes of the clearing.

Samar wondered just how long they would stay looking peaceful once she caught their attention.

But, as she carefully crept through the bushes towards a cave further down the rocky wall for cover, not one of the long-necked creatures paid her even the slightest shred of attention.

It seemed she had reached the herbivorous part of town.

Samar let out another, long, deep breath. That was a relief. She made a mental note to perhaps stick to this herbivorous part of town. She had no interest in trying to fight dinosaurs while she was temporarily trapped in whatever epoch of whatever period she had been transported to, and it would be a whole lot safer if she stuck with dinosaurs who felt much the same way about her. Though, as she caught her breath and her heart rate began to slow back to normal after her sprinting, there was a rumbling in her stomach that quickly presented the next problem;

She was hungry.

Samar wasn't entirely sure what dinosaur meat would taste like, whether it was even _safe_ to eat, nor did she feel like figuring that out any time soon. The tiny, rodent-like early mammals of the time didn't look overly appealing either. From there Samar had assumed she was stuck with salad... Except she didn't recognise any of the plants or see any fruits or vegetables sprouting around either.

That was just a _slight_ problem that her Mossad survival training didn't quite cover.

Samar continued moving along the edge of the rocky wall. The long-necked creatures of the clearing didn't look like they were going to move very far in a hurry and that meant one thing; at the very least there had to be water around somewhere close by... And that was a good start.

It didn't take her long to find it; a narrow but perhaps mid-thigh-deep, quickly flowing stream lined with craggly rocks either side, that sat maybe twenty feet at most from the cave entrance. That it was flowing rather than stagnant was a good sign –it was one of the first indicators her survival training had taught her of water that was more likely to be safe to drink. She would have to find a way to boil it if she wanted to be completely safe, but even though she could build a fire easily enough, she had no vessel to set the water in over the fire that would stay in tact to actually boil it. Dinosaurs weren't exactly known for their crafting of metal pots, and any basket type of thing she could assemble out of the giant fern leaves or tree branches around her would simply burn to ashes and put out the fire when the water leaked out over the top. So flowing, at the very least, was helpful.

Even more helpful was what suddenly darted past her _in_ the water.

Fish. None that she recognised, naturally. But they were all different shapes and sizes, and they were plentiful. Surely, some of them had to be safe to thread onto a twig and roast over a fire.

The water was crystal clear, and nothing below the surface looked dangerous. Samar crouched by the water's edge, ready to scoop one or two fish out of the water just as her training had taught her... Then she paused.

 _Assuming she caught a fish, what was she going to put it in to carry it around with her until she built a fire?_

Furrowing her brow in frustration, and trying to tell her growling stomach to wait just a _little_ while longer, Samar quickly yanked a few of those larger fern leaves from the plant next to her, and then used the knife concealed at her waist to slice a few thick vines from a neighbouring tree. She lashed them together –all the while wondering why on earth she had ever been so cynical of Mossad teaching that particular skill in survival training- finally ending up with a small basket, of sorts. It was wonky, and not exactly neat, but then again there were no Mossad trainers examining it either. So long as it could hold a fish or two –which, it could- it would be just fine.

With her stomach rumbling as much as it was, now was not the moment to be a perfectionist.

Back to the water's edge she went, basket ready in hand. The first few initial swipes at the water proved fruitless. She was out of practice, and the fish were quicker than she expected.

An intense feeling of victory swept over her as she finally caught one, blatantly ignoring the fact that once upon a time she had been able to catch a fish first or second try. After all, until now she hadn't used that skill since training, not even once. The fish promptly went in the basket and Samar reached back into the water ready to catch one more.

Then the little hairs on the back of her neck began to prickle, and the faint sound of footsteps –or rather, _dinosaur-steps_ \- echoed in her ear. Samar turned on the spot, quickly rising to standing and ready to fight, and the sound suddenly stopped.

Perhaps all of six feet away, directly in front of her, was another of those long-necked dinosaurs, apparently just as stunned to stillness by her movement, as she was by his.

This one was distinctly smaller than most of the others Samar had seen earlier, but still larger than the tiny, baby ones that she had noticed stumbling about the feet of the fully grown ones. At perhaps two times her height, the dinosaur right in front of her was somewhere in the middle.

Perhaps it was a teenager, assuming dinosaurs went through a teenage stage. That was Samar's only real frame of reference for it anyway, and the main point was that it was still _two times her size,_ no matter its stage of development.

She raised her hands in a gesture of peace and reassurance, and cautiously stepped backwards. Assuming that this dinosaur was as herbivorous as the others, it wasn't planning to eat her. That meant the only reason it might attack was if it felt threatened.

The creature blinked, tilting its head slightly to curiously study her movements. Cautiously, Samar reached sideways for another of those fern leaves and held it out to the creature, as yet another peace offering. It took a second, but then the dinosaur bounced forwards, taking the leaf from her and gobbling it down all too happily. A second later again, and it was back to staring at her expectantly.  
'You want another one?' Samar asked warily, then internally berated herself for _talking to a dinosaur,_ of all things. The dinosaur blinked once, twice more, and Samar took that as assent to her question. She quickly plucked another leaf from the fern and held it out, and in turn it disappeared from her hand again just as fast. She paused, studying the creature in front of her for a moment. It was longer than it was tall, with a blue-ish grey hide, and one of those long, skinny, flexible necks. If she correctly remembered any of Aram's ramblings about dinosaurs, it was an Apatosaurus, or a Brachiosaurus, or _something_.

She was leaning towards an Apatosaurus, for some reason.

Either way, it definitely wasn't fully grown. It lurched forwards with the bouncy enthusiasm of a small child or perhaps a puppy, suddenly nuzzling its snout or nose, or _whatever_ she was supposed to call the end of an Apatosaurus' face, into her cheek. Samar winced at the giant tongue leaving a trail of dinosaur drool dripping from her face as it shuffled back again, completely unaware of the force of its own body weight.  
'Thanks for that...' Samar muttered to herself, trying to wipe away the drool with the back of her hand. The dinosaur, however, seemed all too pleased with himself. His long, whip-like tail thumped happily against the ground in response to her voice, and those wide eyes blinked again. The snout came back to her height once more, and Samar braced for another round of drool... Until the snout continued on past her, over the craggly rocks and dipping into the water's surface. It stayed there a moment, leaving Samar wondering why on earth the herbivorous creature would do such a thing when he didn't appear to be drinking, until the creature quickly grasped a fish between its teeth and whipped his head back out from the water. The snout returned to just in front of Samar's face, the wriggling, flapping fish now dangling by the tail barely inches from her. Samar furrowed her brow, and the dinosaur gently nudged her once, twice more against her cheek. Samar winced at the fish flapping against her face but didn't protest.

The fish was for her.

Warily, she took it from the Apatosaurus' mouth, and set it in her leaf basket with the one she had caught earlier. Just like that, the dinosaur thumped the ground with his tail happily again, nearly knocking her over... But Samar stood her ground. She glanced him up and down once more, finally struggling to stifle a laugh.

Really, he was just like a gigantic puppy.

With a grin, Samar lifted her basket back off the ground and began heading back along the edge of the rocky wall towards the cave.

Just as quickly, the young Apatosaurus followed, close on her heels.

Samar paused, glancing back at him with a wry, raised eyebrow.

'Are you following me?' She asked, still wondering _why she was still talking to a dinosaur_. 'Really?' The dinosaur blinked, tilting its head curiously to the side again in response to her voice. Samar furrowed her brow in thought; it was interesting just how expressive the dinosaur's face actually was. It couldn't speak, but she could certainly gauge just from the crinkling of its eyes or the way it bobbed its head, exactly how it felt. For the moment it was curious about her, and determined to follow. 'Alright then...' Samar sighed to herself and started moving again. 'Where are your parents, anyway? Or your herd? Shouldn't you be with them?' She glanced sideways at the dinosaur still ambling along beside her, head bowed as if listening carefully to the words he didn't understand. The snout bobbed up again in surprise as she stopped talking, and if the Apatosaurus had a brow that could furrow, Samar would have sworn it did. 'Ok then,' she murmured softly, and with a wry smile, 'you don't want to talk about it. I get it. I don't always like talking about things either.'

It was nearly dark by the time Samar reached the cave again. She made quick work of setting up a small fire for both warmth and cooking out of nearby branches, then using her knife to gut and scale the fish, before threading a twig through each one and setting them over the fire like a small spit.

The dinosaur, having probably not seen fire before, stood further back, watching the flickering flames with a clear sense of uneasiness. Once cooked, the fish didn't last long, and neither did the fire. Samar's belly stopped rumbling, and her putting out the fire had the dinosaur darting quickly back to her side once more. He nipped at her sides, not sharply to bite or cause pain, but just enough of a tug at her shirt and arm to catch her attention.  
'Now what do you want?' Samar asked him, notably unimpressed. Regardless, the dinosaur nipped at her again... And again.

A second later, and an all too familiar sound –albeit louder than she was used to- echoed in her ears.

The sound of a hungry, rumbling belly.

Samar shook her head with a mixture of amusement and exasperation, jumping off the rock she was sitting on and taking the few steps over towards another fern by the cave's entrance. She sliced down a few more leaves with her knife, and handed them over. They lasted about as long as the fish and the fire did.  
'Surely,' Samar began, still shaking her head, 'you could have figured out how to get those for yourself, buddy.' The dinosaur made no response besides awkwardly nudging the ground and avoiding her gaze –clearly, another topic he didn't want to talk about. With that out of the way, Samar turned and entered the cave. By now, darkness filled the sky, dotted only by a few twinkling stars and shred of moonlight that she could only just make out through the dense collection of trees. She was tired, and the cave seemed the safest place to sleep –on the edge of the clearing, but not quite as open in case any of the larger, carnivorous dinosaurs came hunting through the night.

She managed to take maybe all of five steps inside before a soft, warning growl erupted from the dinosaur's throat. Samar paused for a moment, glancing back at him, then took another step in. Another growl erupted. She took yet another step, and yet another growl came. Shaking her head yet _again_ , Samar pulled her cell phone from her pocket. There was no cell service or internet naturally, but it certainly made a good enough flashlight once she turned off all the service-searching functions. Light filled the cave, and Samar was forced to duck. Some three dozen pre-bat-like creatures came screeching and soaring towards her and out of the cave, all in a flurry, angered by the sudden interruption of their darkness.

Somehow, the dinosaur had been able to see or sense their presence, even when Samar herself couldn't.

She switched off the flashlight function of her phone and set it back in her pocket. She waited for the split second it took for her eyes to re-adjust to the darkness before stepping further into the cave again. This time, the dinosaur made not a single noise of protest. He also seemed far more relaxed, and as Samar glanced back at him again –this time, gratefully- he was right on her heels once more.  
'Thanks, buddy,' she murmured to him, genuinely thankful, 'I don't like bats either... Or whatever those were.' A snout came to bump softly against her cheek once more. Samar bit her lip, tentatively reaching out with her hand. The dinosaur had nudged and nipped and nuzzled her plenty of times already, but she hadn't yet reached out to touch him. She wasn't sure how he would feel about it, or where exactly one was supposed to touch a dinosaur either. Nervously she made a guess, gently scratching the side of his snout where it hovered close to her shoulder, scratching under his chin, and back behind where she imagined his ears would be, if only an Apatosaurus _had_ ears. The dinosaur seemed to enjoy it, nuzzling further and further into her hand, wanting more...

...Just as a puppy would.

Samar shook her head again; she never would have thought, when she woke up that morning in the comfort of her own apartment back in the present, that she would spending the evening in a cave, _petting a dinosaur_.

Though, on the plus side, at least she had found herself a dinosaur who was _friendly_ , despite his apparent species confusion. Her accidental transportation back in time could have gone _far_ worse.

'Do you have a name?' She murmured, breaking into a shiver as she continued scratching the dinosaur's imaginary ears. The cave was cold, not as cold as the air outside of it, but still cold nonetheless... And her usual, lightweight, khaki jacket did little to break the chill. She curled up towards one edge of the cage, wrapping her arms around her knees and pulling them in close to keep herself warm as she dozed, but that didn't help much either. The dinosaur lowered himself down until his belly nestled into the cave's soft, sandy floor, and his legs curled up underneath, still not far from her at all. He watched her shivering for a moment, his face contorting into another of those strange expressions that Samar could only have described as confusion or concern, or somewhere halfway in between. A second later, and his long, whip-like tail curled around, nudging against her knees a couple of times, before finally curling all the way back into himself. Samar blinked, not quite sure what to make of the gesture... And then the dinosaur's even longer neck stretched out towards her in turn, nipping at the shoulder of her t-shirt and trying to pull her closer.

Samar got the hint.

She shuffled over across the cave and curled up again, leaning into the dinosaur's side around his own shoulder of sorts. His tail wrapped gently across her ankles, and his long neck across her knees, until his head came to rest somewhere just past her shoulder. Samar let out a breath of relief at the body heat that warmed her in an instant; she was wrapped up tightly enough to stave off the cold, but not at all too tight for her to clamber away if need be. Her hand rested gratefully across the stretch of the dinosaur's long neck that she could reach, softly stroking it.  
'Would it be too ironic of me to call you Fido?' She chuckled softly to him, 'because I think I'm going to.' The ridiculousness of the cliche amused her, anyway.

Fido's only response was to nudge her ankles with his tail again, the gesture of either agreement, or 'shut up and go to sleep.' Samar wasn't exactly sure which it was supposed to be but assumed it to be both, just to be safe. She watched Fido's eyes flicker closed and felt his breathing slow with slumber, until her own did the same... And she too, fell asleep.


	2. Chapter 2

The lack of a door over the front of the cave meant the light streamed in right at the crack of dawn. Samar's eyes snapped open. She groaned under her breath as she stretched out her legs and her arms. She blinked a few times as her brain woke up and processed the fact that waking up curled into a dinosaur was in fact _reality_... She hadn't just been dreaming it the night before.

She was quite warm and comfortable there, actually –far more so than she would have expected.

Fido was still sound asleep as far as she could tell, or at the very least he was _trying_ to be, with his head squashed firmly into his side in the attempt to block out the light.

Samar shook her head with that same hint of amusement and exasperation as she had done the night before; Fido was _definitely_ some kind of a teenager.  
'You are so not a morning dinosaur, are you?' She laughed, gently patting his neck as she climbed out of his grasp to freedom, and then stretched some more. A noise erupted from Fido's throat that sounded like he was distinctly unimpressed with the turn of events that woke him up. 'What's the bet that in about five seconds, you're going to nip at me because you're-' Samar continued chuckling softly to herself, interrupted only by a sudden growl from Fido's belly '-hungry.' She stifled a smirk, playfully pushing away the snout reaching over to nibble her elbow, as she ducked out of the cave to slice off a few more of those leaves he liked from the fern just outside the entrance. 'Yeah, yeah, I know,' she added, still shaking her head, as Fido's long neck uncoiled and his snout seemed to follow her out of the cave while his body stayed put. Samar added a few leaves, seed pods, and other bits and pieces from the other plants around the ferns to her pile, just to see what else he ate, then set it down in front of him. 'There you go, buddy,' she murmured, affectionately patting the long neck as it swept past her, the attached snout burying itself in the pile of dinosaur breakfast.

She ducked back into the cave as Fido gobbled away at the leaves and seeds, just long enough to collect her basket and move back outside again. With fish the only thing around that she could actually eat, and no way to refrigerate them or keep them fresh for extended periods of time, Samar was fairly certain that the whole process of walking down to the stream, catching a couple of fish, walking back, and then cooking them over a small fire before eating them, was going to be one that she repeated multiple times a day until she managed to get back home to the present.

But then again, she had little else to do to kill that time anyway. Keeping herself alive and sane, was pretty much it.

If she was being honest with herself, a shower and a fresh change of clothes would have been nice... But the latter definitely wasn't possible and the former... Well, unless she felt like dirtying her only source of drinking water, taking a dip in the stream probably wasn't advisable either.

Though, Samar suddenly thought to herself, she could try making another leaf basket to use as a bucket of water to tip over her head... And the sunlight would dry her off quickly enough.

Fido followed closely on her heels again as she ambled past the other Apatosauruses in the clearing outside the cave, and headed along the edge of the rocky wall towards the stream. Fish went in one basket –one caught by her, and two by Fido- and another basket that Samar quickly lashed together was strong enough to hold when half-full of water. She gave an involuntary shiver as she tipped it over her head, but felt somewhat fresher, all the same. She was only damp by the time she returned to the cave, and dried even more quickly sitting in front of the fire, cooking her fish. Fido seemed to have figured out the process for himself too by now, and ambled about her in circles while she ate, more or less entertaining himself by nipping at the plants and watching the birds of the era fly well above his head. He ignored the other Apatosauruses and they ignored him, sticking closely to their own herd and showing Fido clearly isolated. The only time he glanced in their direction, even for a moment, was to watch the way the older ones tore down leaves for their young. With a quiet grunt noise that almost sounded like one of frustration, Fido charged at the fern behind the rock Samar was sitting on, the very fern that she had sliced leaves off for him earlier. He grasped at the leaves with his teeth, stubbornly trying to tear them off for himself... But they came apart in pieces.

Samar swiveled on her rock as she chewed the last piece of her fish, watching him flop back down to the ground in defeat. She rose, quickly dousing the fire, moving towards the fern herself, and tugging not at the leaves, but at their stems.  
'Like this, buddy,' she said gently. She waited until Fido stared up at her again, his neck stretching out and his snout coming to rest miserably against her shoulder as he watched. Samar tugged at the stem, breaking the leaf away from the plant in its whole, and handed it to him.

It vanished into his mouth in an instant, but that wasn't the point.

Fido's snout moved forwards again, grasping another leaf, still not quite at the stem, but certainly closer to it than he had before. He pulled half of it off at once, almost surprising himself. Samar gave his neck a reassuring rub; that was certainly progress, at the very least. Being able to eat pieces off the original plant was one thing, but being able to tear whole leaves off the plant was a skill that needed to be learned too... Especially if Fido ever hoped to have even littler Fidos one day and actually be able to feed them.

There was another nudge of his snout against her side, jolting Samar's attention away from her thoughts and back to the present –well, Fido's present anyway. She had been back in his time period for going on twenty four hours now, and as much as Samar genuinely enjoyed Fido's company and the time spent in the wilderness, getting back to nature, she was seriously starting to miss the small luxuries of the present; showers, blankets, and fellow humans who could actually speak back to her. Another nudge bumped Samar gently forwards.  
'Now where are we going?' She mused softly. Another nudge pushed her forwards yet again. 'Ok, ok,' Samar laughed, 'I get the idea.' She rested her hand on Fido's side so he knew she was there, and followed along beside him.

They moved on through the clearing, past the other Apatosauruses, and onwards further again... They walked for ten minutes or so through the trees and past the stream, with Fido turning his head back every so often to make sure Samar was still there all the way back beside his legs. Samar's heart rate quickened slightly, when they passed close enough by the carnivorous creatures who had chased her the day before, to see them in the distance. Fido's pace began to slow, and his head began to bow miserably, the longer they walked... Until they came to a sudden stop.

A breath caught in Samar's throat as she ducked around Fido's legs that were as thick as small tree trunks, and took in the sight in front of them both.

Two fully grown Apatosauruses, crumpled on the ground on top of one another... And if anything Samar had learned from her experience in the field was supposed to be any indication, she estimated from the state of decomposition and feasting by other creatures –she assumed, the carnivorous dinosaurs- that they had been dead for all of a day or two, perhaps three at the most.

For a moment, Samar didn't quite understand why Fido had led her there, of all places... And then another noise erupted from his throat, one that Samar hadn't yet heard before. It was somewhere between a wail and a whine, something miserable, or devastated, even. She moved closer, stepping carefully around the crumpled bodies to study the faces, and then it all suddenly made sense...

They were Fido's parents.

In watching the herd of Apatosauruses near the cave, it wasn't hard to spot which of the baby dinosaurs belonged to which of the adults. There were small hints of resemblance that she could see between them; slight colour differences in their hides, size and shape of their eyes, general height and tail length, and things like that... And she could see the resemblance now between Fido and the two fully grown Apatosauruses in front of her on the ground.

He was too big to be adopted by the other, bigger dinosaurs in his herd if his parents were killed, because he wasn't a baby anymore... But at the same time, he wasn't big enough or mature enough to fend for himself or fulfil a real, adult role in the herd, and so he had fallen away from them, isolated, or even exiled really. And now he stared back at her, as if expecting -after the way she had fed him and tried to look after him over the last day- that she could somehow bring them back.

Somehow, that tore away at Samar inside more than she thought it would. She blinked away the tears, instantly flashing back to finding her own parents' bodies on the floor in her home, when she too, was a teenager. Dinosaur or human, the pain was probably the same. She moved back towards Fido, reaching up to him as he lowered his snout back to her face height, and taking his face in her hands. She wrapped her arms around his neck as reassuringly as she could, leaning her cheek against his.  
'I'm sorry, Fido,' she whispered to him, 'I know how this feels, too... I wish I could fix it, but I can't.' That devastated whine echoed in Fido's throat again, reverberating in Samar's ears... But she didn't let go of him. She held on, and his neck wrapped all the way around her, finally resting his head again atop hers.

The only thing she could think of to do, was to cover them. To bury them in sticks, leaves, dirt, anything she could move with her hands, to stop the beasts who killed them from feasting on them anymore. She wasn't entirely sure Fido would understand what she was doing or why she was doing it, but Samar did it anyway. It took a while –a couple of hours at least- to cover them properly, given their size and the fact she didn't have a shovel or any other kind of tool but still, they were covered. And, Samar was filthy... But she didn't care about that in the slightest.

'Come on, buddy,' she murmured softly to him once she was finished, 'let's go back to our cave.' So long as she was trapped back in that time period, they may as well stick together, looking after one another. They walked along, side by side again, back towards the cave; this time, Samar wasn't standing by his leg while his long neck stretched several feet ahead, but instead she moved at the other end of his neck, with Fido's head hovering at about her shoulder height. It was only as they moved back through the clearing again, that his snout rose further upwards, gazing at the herd with distinct interest.

Or more specifically, some of the younger members of the herd that Samar hadn't noticed before... Those, that appeared to be about the same size as Fido. His old friends, probably... Or more specifically again, one that had what Samar had noticed earlier as some of the more distinctly female features of the herd. There was a notable change in Fido's gait, whether intentional or subconscious, Samar didn't know –but, it seemed almost strut-like. She tried desperately to hold back a laugh, but couldn't.  
'Ex-girlfriend?' She quietly teased, 'or the girl you were trying to impress back when you were still allowed to talk to her?' There must have been something about her tone that Fido could understand despite not speaking any human tongue, for his only response to the comment was to nip quickly at her ear; yet another, embarrassed 'shut up' kind of response. Samar, however, could only chuckle to herself further, earning yet another nip.

Regardless, as they headed back towards the stream ready for lunch, she pulled leaves and seed pods off the plants as they passed them, each one being gobbled quite contently from her hand.

Lunch passed much the same as breakfast had earlier, and much the same as dinner the night before. Dinner that night passed in the same fashion too; fish over the fire for Samar, leaves and seed pods for Fido, with observations of the herd and lessons in correctly tearing leaves off plants, all dotted in between. Samar actually bounced on the balls of her feet in delighted pride, when Fido managed to tear off his first whole leaf, only for his subsequent affectionate nudge to accidentally knock her over seeing as she wasn't standing steady for once. Either way, she laughed, not at all hurt by the small tumble, and hugged him proudly... Only to then be covered in leaf-green tinted dinosaur drool when Fido licked her cheek in response.

That night passed the same as the night before, though without Samar having to be prompted to curl up against Fido's side. She went there automatically this time around, with his neck and tail curling contently around her quickly thereafter to keep her warm.

The next morning, Fido awoke as temporarily cranky with the daylight as he had the day before, though he cheered up immensely when Samar prompted him towards the ferns and he actually managed to assemble his own breakfast. Samar remained proud but just as she had the day before, she wondered just how much longer she would be stuck there in the middle of the wilderness. It ate away at her just a little more than it had the previous day, too.

It was around the middle of the day, while she was stubbornly trying to assemble a door of sorts out of branches and vines for the cave seeing as she was still stuck there, with Fido trying –and failing- to be helpful by pulling on the vines with his teeth, that a loud crack noise appeared behind her, making her jump.

The herd in the clearing all scattered, making fearful noises of their own, and Fido let out a distinct, protective growl. He stood in front of Samar as she turned, trying to crane her neck around his legs to see what was going on.

Aram and Ressler, the latter with his gun drawn and pointed threateningly at Fido, had finally travelled back for her.

'Hey, _stop_ ,' Samar called out, hurriedly scrambling out from behind the dinosaur to stand between him and Ressler.  
' _Samar._ ' Aram's eyes widened in surprise at the sight of her, delighted to see that she was ok.  
'Don't shoot him,' Samar urged Ressler, momentarily ignoring Aram's attempt at greeting, 'he's ok, he won't hurt you. Just put the gun down.' Samar stood her ground between Aram and Ressler, and Fido, the latter of which growled deep in his throat at the sudden appearance of strangers, and the former who were both too stunned and unused to their surroundings not to be concerned by a dinosaur twice their height standing right in front of them.  
'You are...' Ressler began, warily lowering his service weapon and setting it back in his holster as he glanced Samar up and down, ' _covered_ in dirt.'

Samar rolled her eyes with a hint of exasperation.

'I've been stuck in whatever time period this is for nearly three days,' she drolly pointed out, 'what did you expect?'  
'It's the, uh, Late Jurassic period,' Aram couldn't help himself from explaining, before furrowing his brows in concern as he glanced at Fido and then around the now empty clearing, 'where's his herd?'  
'You're looking at her.' Aram and Ressler's gazes both snapped back to her in an instant, before sharing hesitant, worried glances between the two of them, wondering if Samar had already been stuck in the wilderness for _far_ too long and already gone crazy... But Samar simply broke into a wry smile, offering them a nonchalant shrug; 'it's complicated,' she added softly. Or at least, she didn't feel like explaining her understanding of what happened to Fido's parents right there and then. Without even realising it at first, she reached up to absentmindedly scratch Fido's snout where it had resumed hovering protectively over her shoulder from behind.  
'Are you... _Petting_ a dinosaur?' Ressler burst out, shaking his head in disbelief. That jolted Samar's attention back to what she was doing, and she grinned even more so at Fido then nuzzling her cheek in response. Aram scurried forward, eager to pet the Apatosaurus for himself. He reached out with one hand, ready to scratch Fido's snout just as Samar had, but Fido quickly –and disgruntledly- nipped at his fingertips.  
'Hey,' Samar gently scolded the dinosaur now burying its head in the back of her shoulder. 'These are _friends_ , big guy. There's no need to bite them.' She waited for Fido to gingerly pop his head back up above her shoulder before prompting Aram to try again... He did so, more warily this time, and Fido made no protest. He gently patted Fido's snout, until Fido relented and nuzzled contently back into his hand, apparently having decided that Aram wasn't so bad after all.  
'This is so weird...' Aram exclaimed in delight, 'but so _cool_.'  
'It'd be better if I had a decent bed, and maybe a bathroom,' Samar chuckled drolly, 'but yeah, it's not too bad.'

It could certainly have been worse, that was for sure.

Aram and even Ressler too, smiled warmly at her, both of them all too glad that after their frantic days of case-cracking and trying to find her, Samar was alright.  
'Ready to go home?' Ressler asked softly. Samar hesitated for a split second, glancing back and forth between them and Fido. For all her wishing for comfort and wanting to go home, now that she was faced with the reality, she felt unready to leave the dinosaur behind.

...To leave _her_ dinosaur behind.

She turned on the spot, resting a gentle hand along the side of Fido's snout. His head bowed miserably, sensing her hesitation and that something was happening, before burying his snout back into her shoulder and neck.

'Hey, Fido,' she murmured softly, stroking the top of his head, 'I have to go home now.' She paused, the words catching in an uncomfortable lump in her throat; 'but _thank you_... For keeping me company, and keeping me safe.' Samar tried desperately to blink her tear ducts back into submission. Aram and Ressler both shifted on their feet, turning their gazes instead to the herd of Apatosauruses now returning slowly and quietly to the clearing. Samar wrapped her arms around Fido's neck, which in turn wrapped around her until he rested his head again atop hers. 'I'm going to miss you, too,' she whispered, as another of those miserable whines erupted from Fido's throat, echoing in her ear. 'You'll be ok though,' Samar added softly, trying to slowly disentangle herself from the hug. She held back a small laugh as she glanced at the returning herd, eyeing the small group of other young Apatosauruses who were staring curiously at Fido. 'I think that girl dinosaur likes you.' Fido stared cautiously back at the group, shyly eyeing them back over Samar's shoulder. She scratched his snout again, encouraging him; 'go on, buddy,' she prompted, 'you can do it, I know you can.' It took one more reassuring scratch, before Fido warily took one step back towards his old herd and then another, and another.

Samar watched on nervously as he approached them, hoping desperately that he would be accepted back. The older members of the group raised their heads from their foraging, watching him approach... But they made no protest. Back to their foraging they went, and Fido shyly fell back into the group of those his own age, jumping playfully straight away into whatever chasing game they were playing that Samar didn't understand.

Samar couldn't help but break into a proud smile, wiping away a tiny tear with the back of her hand.

'Ok,' she began slowly, turning her attention back to her coworkers, 'now I'm ready.'

Aram and Ressler both nodded, clapping her on the shoulder as Aram pulled the flashing, handheld device back out from his pocket. He pressed a few buttons and turned a few dials, expertly now that he had spent days trying to figure it out. All of them took careful hold of the device's outer ring as it lit up more and more brightly... And then, they vanished.

The dinosaur filled wilderness was human-free once more... And back to the present, Samar went.

/*/*/*/*

It took a few days before Samar felt normal again back in her apartment. As nice as it was to have the comforts of home back again, there was a pang in her gut that missed Fido desperately. Perhaps she had only become so attached, so quick, because she was stuck there alone with nobody but him for company, but she was more inclined to believe that it was because he had become almost pet-like to her –or perhaps, she was a pet to him. Either way, she missed his blatant, unquestioning affection, and his little moments of attitude that made her laugh so hard. Even without being able to speak back to her, it wasn't hard for Samar to see Fido's big personality.

She had a novelty magnet on her refrigerator now, that Aram had bought and left on her desk as a small, reassuring gesture. It was a blue-ish grey coloured Apatosaurus, a comforting reminder of Fido that made her smile every time she passed it in her kitchen.

It was a few more days after that, that she passed by Aram's desk on the way to her own in the morning and he stopped her, brushing his hand against her arm to catch her attention.  
'How are you going?' He asked softly.  
'I'm ok,' Samar murmured, nodding and offering a small smile that was as much to reassure herself as it was him, 'I kind of miss my dinosaur... But I'm ok.' Aram paused, breaking into a contemplative grin.  
'Maybe you should get a puppy,' he suggested, trying to stifle his enthusiasm.  
'Aram-' Samar tried to protest, but Aram's gleeful enthusiasm cut her off.  
'-You could name him Pat.'  
'...Why would I name a puppy _Pat?'_  
'Why would you name a dinosaur Fido?' He shot back, albeit teasingly.  
'Because he was like a giant puppy,' Samar replied, her words slow as she thought back to that initial decision. Just the memory of the time spent with Fido –the time that she would never be able to speak of outside that office, out of a combination of national security concerns and the potential of being mistaken for crazy- made her smile warmly. The sudden realisation of Aram's logic made her smile even wider. '...And Pat is short for Apatosaurus,' she mused softly. Aram grinned, and nodded quickly, pleased that she understood. She squeezed his hand where it sat on his desk, before turning back to her own, deep in thought as she replied; 'I'll think about it... Thanks.'

She sat back down at her desk, still smiling to herself. Those couple of days with Fido in the wilderness felt like some kind of wild, overly-imaginative and extremely vivid dream... But, as difficult as it had been to run from the first dinosaurs who chased her, and as strange as it had been to live for those few days with no other humans or human comforts, Samar didn't feel as if she regretted any of it or wished for anything to have gone differently.

After all, how many people could say they had pet dinosaurs?


End file.
